Roll for roller-bearings



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN IV. HYATT, OF NEVARK, NEIV JERSEY.

ROLL FOR ROLLER-BEARINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 428,492, dated May 20, 1890.

Application fi ed September '7, 1889; Serial No. 323,318. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN IV; HYATT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, Essex county, New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Rolls for Roller-Bearings, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

My present improvement consists in an anti-friction bearing, in which the shaft-journal is surrounded by rollers of wood compressed upon the end of the grain; and the invention is based upon the fact that the compression of wood endwise imparts an entirely new constitution thereto, which especially preserves the wood from disintegration or lamination when subjected to weight and rolling friction in a journal-bearing.

Heretofore compressed wood has been used exclusively for ornamental objects-such as checkers, dominoes, medallions, and architectural ornamentsand the operation of compression has been employed solely as a cheap and effective means of producing the desired form. I have discovered, however, that the compression of wood endwise of the grain operates to interlock the fibers in such a manner as to felt or mesh the fibers together in a most complicated manner, so that the longitudinal grain of the wood is to a greater or less degree obliterated, and the wood is capable of exercising entirely new functions. Vood compressed laterally is only disintegrated, as the fibers are detached from one another without any interlacing adapted to recombine them in a solid fabric. Upon the contrar wood compressed endwise is practicallya different substance in its constitution from uncompressed wood, and is susceptible of resisting many strains to which it is not otherwise adapted, and is especially preserved from lamination when formed into rollers and subjected to rolling friction.

Rollers of uncompressed wood possess differences of constitution upon different sides of the roller, and not only yield differently under the weight imposed upon them, but the different layers of which the rollers are composed are ultimately detached from one another and separated from the roller, thus wholly destroying its efficiency. The compressing of wood upon the end of the grain not only interlocks the fibers and prevents them from disintegration under rolling friction, but operates to render the structure nearly or quite homogeneous throughout, and to thus prevent one side or portion of a wooden roller from wearing or acting any differently than another under rolling friction.

In preparing the rollers for a roller-bearing according to my invention it is preferable to compress the wood in masses suitable each for a single roller; but such a method of construction is not sufficient, as it is in the manufacture of ornamental articles, to fit the roller for its final use, but merely alters the constitution of the Wood to exercise its new functions. The rollers require turning in a lathe to the same degree as if they had not been compressed, and are thus made perfectly round and true, in which form they remain when in use with great persistence, owing to their homogeneous constitution. The blanks of compressed wood, suitable each for a single roller, are perfectly saturated with hot kerosene-oil to protect them from the absorption of moisture and atmospheric influences, and are then ready for shaping to the desired size for use. Hickory, elm, birch, and other Woods of tough fiber are especially adapted for this purpose; and rollers made of such compressed wood may be applied to a journal-bearing of any particular design in place of the metallic, india-rubber vulcanite, or woodite rollers heretofore used.

In the annexed drawings is illustrated a roller-bearing constructed according to my patent, No. 385,266, dated June 26,1888, in which short roll-sections are employed and placed in contact endwise with one another between flanges at the ends of the journalbox.

Figure 1 is an end elevation of the bearing with shaft inserted therein, and 'Fig. 2 is a plan of the same with the cap and the shaft removed.

A is the journal-box, B the shaft fitted within the same, and O the loose roll-sections contained in the journal-box by flanges D at its opposite ends. The rolls may, however,

be extended the entire length of the bearing and combined with pivots or annular collars of any kind, as such constructions have long been used. I

I find in practice that rolls of compressed wood are adapted for roller-bearings to sustain a very considerable weight, and that they are perfectly suited to operate without lubrication and without any resulting disintegration, if not loaded beyond the proper limit. Such rolls are especially desirable for the journals of car-axles, as they are quite noiseless in their operation, are exceedingly cheap, are easily replaced when worn out, and are incapable of cutting the journal or otherwise injuring the same.

Having set forth above the difference between the functions exercised by the compressed wood in my invention and in the ornamental articles to which its use has heretofore been limited, it will be obvious that Ido not claim compressed wood as a new article, but that I utilize constitutional features of such an article as have not heretofore been practically used.

hat I have discovered and invented is the application of compressed wood under grain, substantially as and for'the purpose set forth.

2. In an anti-friction roller-bearing, the combination, with a cylindrical casing, of rolls of wood compressed upon the end of the grain and saturated with oil, substantially as and for the'purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN W. HYAT'I.

\Vitnesses:

THOS. S. CRANE, F. (J. FISCHER. 

